Eye of the Beholder
by Hanane EL Mokkadem
Summary: Side-story to Eye of the Hurricane. What was everyone else doing or thinking while Rhea was running around trying to save the world... Or at the very least, trying to not be the one responsible for ending it?


_Thank you Temul for taking the time to read and improve this. You're a wonderful beta ;)_

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 _This chapter is dedicated to Cassy daughter of the Moon who asked me a simple question that inspired me to write this chapter._

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Belonging

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Silas Dagwood is not considered to be a normal satyr. He can't play his reed pipes to save his life; sometimes quite literally. He's a little more familiar with mortals and their ways than can be justified by going undercover as a human. And it's a all too obvious to see that he doesn't enjoy mingling with the other satyrs and campers and that he likes living in the human world a little too much.

His peers think Silas is a strange satyr. He doesn't listen to the wisdom his elders kindly deign to bestow upon him and is far too opinionated as far as they're concerned.

Further more, normal satyrs can't wait to get their searchers license so that they can finally do their part in finding the great god Pan. Silas however, thinks that if Pan wanted to be found, he would have been found already by one of the thousands of other searchers who traveled the world looking for even a hint of his presence.

Silas thinks about the world he's living in and the way that nature is slowly disappearing inch by inch. He thinks about the animals that are dying and slowly being hunted into extinction, he thinks about the trees being cut down one after another, and he finds that it paints a very grim picture.

If Pan was around somewhere, enjoying a two millennium long sabbatical like all the other satyrs seemed to believe, he would've gotten off his butt a long time ago and done something about the state of the world. The fact that he hasn't means that he's either dead or slowly dying as far as Silas is concerned.

Unfortunately, it is not a popular opinion to have and Silas isn't very liked because of it. Because he sees no problem with letting his opinion be know, blatantly and loudly, even if it isn't well received and considered heresy by the other satyrs, he's even less liked than his many times distant cousin Grover and _he's_ being blamed for getting one of Zeus' children killed.

Silas is fine with this though. He's fine with the side way looks he gets whenever he walks around Camp Half-Blood. He's fine with people thinking he's strange and not wanting to be his friend because of it. He is fine with being lonely, because it's just that; fine. None of these things are going to pressure him into applying for a searchers license and going on a useless quest that has a high probability of getting him killed.

He's fine with all of this. Until he isn't.

It all starts when he get's called to the Big House for a new assignment. Usually he would have dreaded it; sick and tired of having to pretend he was something he wasn't just so he could protect some little demigod brat that would probably end up giving him a hard time for acting like a weirdo. He's been through this before with other demigod children he has protected and brought to Camp. It's always the same cycle, just rinse and repeat.

This time however, he doesn't mind as much. Hanging around Camp Half-Blood for the last couple of months has been getting on his nerves and he's itching for an assignment, even if it _is_ to protect some stupid brat that doesn't even have the sense to know that fire is hot.

Chiron sends him to The Golden Values school in Ithaca, New York where he has to babysit some kid and make sure she doesn't get herself killed by some monster hoping to score itself a reputation. Silas already hates it because he knows from experience that it's easier to protect his charge if he becomes their friend, but also knows that he has absolutely nothing in common with a fourteen year old child, let alone a girl. He's gonna come over all stalker-like and creepy and the girl will undoubtedly think he's a weirdo, and will tease him mercilessly, which will only make his job more difficult.

He knows he'll seem anxious and weird, because he is supposed to be masquerading as a human, and as much as he enjoys interacting with mortals and their culture, he is so far from being a human being that it's not even funny. It's his job to basically play an undercover bodyguard without having the person he's guarding catch on that he's more than he seems.

But it's fine. It's better than staying at Camp Half-Blood, so really it's _fine_.

Then, after Silas arrives at the school and meets his new assignment, a girl by the name of Rhea Jackson, suspected of being a child of a minor deity on account of her weak scent, he reconsiders his stance.

Silas Dagwood finds out that Rhea is nothing at all like he imagined his charge to be. Oh, she's still a moron of epic proportion because this girl actually _does_ have the sense to know that fire burns but still decides to grasp it with both hands pretending it doesn't, which is even worse. But, all in all she's definitely not the worst assignment he's ever had; that one is reserved for a son of Ares.

Silas finds her to be warm and welcoming, at best, often ignoring his weirdness as if it's completely normal, and at worst, she just looks like she's secretly laughing at him.

He finds that he doesn't mind. He can actually say that it's fine and wholeheartedly mean it. It's a novel concept for him.

Against all odds they become friends, best friends even. And Silas finds that he loves Rhea Jackson, instantly, absolutely and so very much that there isn't anything in the world he wouldn't do for her. And the best thing is that she feels the same. He can feel it in every emotion that freely flows from her and through him. And Silas, well he just soaks it up like a flower basking in the sunlight.

They simply clicked, spontaneously and irrevocably, like two pieces of a puzzle finally coming together. And Silas finally knows why he never seemed to fit anywhere. Why he wasn't meant to be a searcher like so many before him. It's because he was already meant to belong somewhere else, and as Silas watches Rhea gape in shock at Luke Castellan, and proceeds to clumsily accuse her of secretly being a man, Silas Dagwood suppresses a fond laugh and thinks to himself that this is more than just fine.

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 **A/N:** _I hope you liked the small look into Dag's mind. I'd like to ask for promts. Is there anything you want to read. Poseidon's pov, Percy, or maybe even Sally's. Perhaps a scene you would like me to write from her childhood, or what the gods were up to when Rhea and Percy were bull fighting? Please, do tell._

Sincerely,

Hanane


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